‘Warrant Chiefs’: The last lap (2)
By Tunde Thompson,
Monday, May 14 , 2012
The observation made about “warrant chiefs” by the historian Michael Crowder as being “individuals with some apparent authority (who) were raised to the status of warrant chiefs, a class that was to incur great unpopularity,” in his book “The story of Nigeria” (as quoted on Monday), was substantiated by a controversial development late in the year 1929.
The activities of Okugo, a warrant Chief of Okolo town, near Aba, sparked off a rebellion among women which reverberated in all parts of Eastern Nigeria and influenced what other women did in Abeokuta, Western Region, also against poll taxation(MrsFunmilayo Ransome Kuti and colleagues).
As stated by Crowder, “….. a certain warrant Chief Okugo, whilst reassessing the taxable wealth of the inhabitants of a village called Oloko, near Aba in Eastern Nigeria, began counting women, children and animals. Rumor quickly spread that this heralded the introduction of taxation of women…..soon the women of Aba and Owerri divisions were up in arms against the (colonial) administration. Stores were sacked, native courts burnt and unpopular warrant Chiefs attacked. The riots spread to Calabar and Opobo, where, on the 15th December, 1929, a riot of such ferocity took place that the police opened fire on the crowd and killed 32 people, wounding a further 31…” (pp. 259-260).
This location account is however contradicted by that of Chioma Oruh in her internet essay titled “Aba women Rebellion….” which situated that bloody confrontation spearheaded by a woman trader called Nwanyeruwa (who strongly opposed the attempt to include women in the colonial poll tax drive ordered in 1926), in Aba, not Opobo, and relies on another noteworthy British colonial chronologist, Margery Perham, for her thesis.
That notwithstanding, you can say that because the “favoured one” in Egwu Achi Autonomous Community (Chief Victor Meniru), referred to on Monday, had “some apparent authority” from Governor Sullivan Chime and Chieftaincy Matters Commissioner Abugu, Chief Meniru was selected to be the Igwe of Egwu Achi Autonomous Community. But what is that type of authority which does not enjoy the approval, support and loyalty of the people? Obviously, it is narrowly or subjectivity based, arising probably from business, educational, professional or social connections, and not based on traditional or legal-rational authority grounds. Otherwise, there would have been no controversy on the issue whatsoever.
It is rather puzzling that some of those who went to school and are in politics should be counted among individuals who are so blinded by their power positions that they forget that ultimate power belongs first to God, who cherishes truth, justice and order, and second, to the people, especially when they have a constitution that stipulates who can become traditional ruler in their community. Why select when there is provision for election? Was and is Chief Victor Meniru “too big” to have been fielded as a candidate for “Igwe”? How come the government can conclude by its actions and utterances that the people’s opinions do not matter? Is that what democracy means to the Governor and the Commissioner?
And then, there are a number of illogicalities in the whole matter: They call a place an “autonomous community” and yet set about imposing an Igwe on the people: What does “autonomy” mean, then?
Put bluntly, Chief Victor Meniru is not and cannot be victorious until he receives the approval and support and love of the people at Egwu Achi. It is dangerous not to do so. He simply cannot treat them as inconsequential. (To be concluded).
Mail Bag
Re: Poverty and exploitation of resources
Thanks, Tunde, for your nice piece on poverty and the exploitation of resources. For a start, let me approach the issues separately. Poverty comes across as that sustained condition of deprivation and concomitant vulnerability in which the quality of life is adversely affected. It is defined by the lacuna between perception/expectation and reality such that the wider the gulf, the more abject the condition of deprivation. In all kinds of poverty, there is a sustained lack of that which inevitably subtracts from the meaning of life. Therefore, poverty is sustained and underlined by the lack ofall that will give true meaning to life.
Poverty (of any kind), induces hunger for what is lacking. In the negative sense, it makes the dispossessed vulnerable to the machinations of the evil ones, thereby reducing them to willing tools in the hands of their mindless exploiters. It creates room for envy; in which condition, the mind could be preoccupied with plotting violence and the downfall of others (in transferred aggression) in order to reduce them to the same condition of poverty. In addition, it goes to precipitate the almajiri or dependency syndrome. But in the positive sense, it creates those conditions necessary to strive for what is evidently lacking. For instance, in our spiritual poverty or emptiness and with an abiding faith in God, the condition is thus created to enable us have the humility to ask God to fill our emptiness with all the measures of His fullness. And in our material poverty, we are challenged to work hard to create wealth. And this can only be achieved in an atmosphere of healthy competition.
Whether we like to admit it or not, the President got it right when he said that the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, has cells or agents in his government, legislature, judiciary, and security agencies. General Azazi (the NSA) only extended it to the political party. All these make Boko Haram terrorism intractable. The lessons from what happened to the late Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi (who did not know the kind of people he was dealing with and therefore could not take pre-emptive measures), are legion. And one of them is that the policy of appeasement never works.
The threat to kill all Christians and destroy Christianity in Nigeria (made real by the killing of Christians in the North and the destruction of their various places of worship) is enough provocation to lead to war. Those threatened have every justification to take up arms purely in self-defence; and should expect God to be on their side because He is a just God and every just cause is His. But the docile attitude of members of the Christian Community who would always proclaim that as Christians, they should not seek revenge; for vengeance is God’s, makes another outbreak of war inevitable.
They claim to be the army of Christ, but cannot stand up for Jesus. Furthermore, while they also corruptly enrich themselves, they do not remember the Commandments of God; all His Precepts, Decrees, Statutes, laws, etc. but would easily remember that vengeance is God’s. Do the Scriptures not tell us of instances of God being on the side of those He favoured to win wars? If the State of Israel were to be so cowardly and docile in the hostile political terrain of the Middle East, she would have long been history. But her stance instructs that peace can be sustained through a balance of terror.
Those who are bent on destroying others and their religions are not immune to destruction. In dialectical parlance, all false claims, blind faiths and/or fake religions harbour sufficient doctrinal materials that constitute their anti-thesis and from which they would inevitably self-destruct.
Kalah Moshood,Lagos.
